Microbiota: what it is and how to take care of it

Microbiota: we talk about it more and more often, but we try to understand together what it is and how it affects our health.

What is the microbiota?
The microbiota is the set of all microorganisms: bacteria, viruses, mushrooms and protozoa that populate our body. The term microbioma indicates the set of microbiota genes.
The most famous microbiota is certainly the intestinal microbiota: the overall weight of these little guests reaches about one and a half kg. All the components of the microbiota collaborate and act as a single organism, and it is therefore very important that they are in balance, both in terms of numerous and representation of different species, when this happens we speak of eubosi.
The intestinal microbiota performs numerous functions that do not stop only at the level of the digestive system where it protects the villi of the intestinal wall. It provides for the synthesis of fundamental substances that the human being alone would not be able to produce like vitamins K (involved in the coagulation of the blood) and B12 (important for the synthesis of red blood cells), but also some amino acids and enzymes, claims And it promotes the activity of the immune system and has regulatory effects on the cardiovascular, nervous and endocrine system.

Is it really so important?
Alterations of the microbiota (dysbiosis) have been observed in some pathologies such as cardiovascular disorders and hypertension, metabolic diseases and depression, but also dysmenorrhea and premenstrual syndrome. To date, the relationship causes the effect has not yet been fully understood, but certainly the microbiota also plays an important role in the onset of these disorders.

The presence of a healthy and working microbiota is so important that for some serious intestinal infections the feces transplant is used: the feces of a healthy donor with all their microbiotic kit are introduced into the patient's intestine and will help the new host organism a fight the infection. All this at a very low cost and with few side effects!

How does it form?
The neonatal period and the first years of life are fundamental for the formation of a microbiota in balance and full of different species. In particular, the passage through the vaginal canal during the birth makes the mother's vaginal microbiota come into contact with the newborn by laying the foundations for the formation of the child's microbiota. This moment is so important that it is starting to buffer the Natches with the natches with cesarean childbone with the microbiota, it has been seen that the contact with the mother's vaginal microbiota reduces the future incidence of allergies and metabolic diseases.

 

How can we take care of it?
Our body is a planet that tends to small and different guests, their characteristics are strongly influenced by the environment in which we live and our lifestyle: regularity of sleep, diet and physical activity contribute to characterizing the microbiotic population and small are enough Variations, periods of strong stress and prolonged antibiotic treatments to alter this symbiotic balance.

We try to maintain a healthy and conscious lifestyle, but without this becoming in turn a stress! Then there are some foods, rich in prebiotic elements (bananas, dried fruit, wholemeal flours, are just a few), which can come to help us, they come indigented in the intestine where they are fermented by the resident flora by feeding it.

Let's take care of these little guests, in return they will contribute to giving us a healthy life!

Beatrice equal